Personally, the year 2008 was by far the most eventful in my life. The three most notable events: CPTC, SIP and recognizing my atheism.

CPTC refers to the Chemical Process Technology Centre where I received training in Chemical Engineering along with the rest of the cohort. It was amazing. It was interesting. It was fun. The shift training absolutely rocks. Even until now, I cannot forget the night shift when my team had to do troubleshooting. Yea, we broke the record. The experience blew my mind away.

SIP - Student Internship Program. I was sent off to the Nanyang Technological University with Jonathan for this 4 month program. We got our taste of working life as laboratory assistants. It kinda rocks for the first day then it sucked from there. LOL. I had to do a 40 day long experiment and do the same set of tests everyday. Really harmful to your sanity. BUT, I did learn alot.

Through SIP, I met and became friends with Jonathan. At the beginning, you could say he is somewhat of a lapsed christian? I'm not sure. Nonetheless, I was able to discuss with him about religion when I was in the process of "discovering" my atheism. I would sometimes offer little tidbits about evolution when I was reading Richard Dawkins' books. Perhaps his beliefs were changing - I don't know - but in no time, he got the Gospel of Flying Spaghetti Monster. He loves the Pirate Fish. Oh! And this funny guy loves to call me "Boss!". LOL.

My becoming a "full-blown" atheist was largely triggered by the SIP. But not by virtue of the SIP itself but the loads of free time I gained because I had to travel a long distance to work. Two hours each day on the train made it incredibly boring without any entertainment. I got "The God Delusion" first. Then in no time, I got "God is not great", "The End of Faith" followed by "The Ancestor's Tale" and more. By the end of SIP, I have read almost all of Richard Dawkins' books.

I was short of the "River Out of Eden" and "The Blind Watchmaker". But Jonathan got me the latter 3 days ago. So, in standard Singlish, I want to thank him for the book again: "Jon ar, thanks hor."

I would also like to thank all the people who made the year a fruitful one for me. Oh and screw god. (Sorry, couldn't help it)

In this new year, may we work to make the world a little better. I shan't dare hope for world peace yet. For I think it is impossible to achieve world peace any day if religion stays around.